What is Polar Covalent Bonding?

Question

Can someone explain polar covalent bonding to me?

Answer 1

A covalent bond is a bond that is formed between two atoms by sharing electrons. In covalent bonds, the electron density, or the place where the electrons are most likely to be, is right in between the two atoms. Electronegativity is a measure of the tendency of an atom to attract electrons to itself. A polar covalent bond is a covalent bond made between atoms of different electronegativities. When two atoms of different electronegativites covalently bond to each other, since one atom is more electronegative than the other, it will draw more electrons to it than the other atom. Because of this, the electron density will be skewed; it'll won't be in the middle, but it will be closer to the more electronegative atom.

Answer 2

There are two types of covalent bonds: Polar covalent bonds, and non-polar (or pure) covalent bonds. The most widely-accepted definition of polar covalence is the occurrence of the atoms involved of an electronegativity difference less than or equal to 2.1 but greater or equal to 0.5. A pure covalent bond is a bond that occurs when the atoms involved have an electronegativity difference of zero (though some texts read less than 0.2).